Implicit in that question is that if you enjoy editing .vimrc files by hand and have posted it on the net to brag about your vim-fu, then you and I don't live on the same planet. Also, I'm furiously resenting your petty sense of superiority and am busy making really unfair generalizations about the number of times you've watched Cowboy Bebop.

But the rest of you guys are the bee's knees, and I'm reasonably certain are above average in both intelligence and good looks.

Where was I. I was thinking that if I'm willing to forego everything but just the basic to intermediate configuration options for vim, then there ought to be a pretty simple little clicky draggy web app or some such that could make me a functioning .vimrc. And it might even explain to me in English what those options were doing when I set them. Like a checkbox that says "Would you like your search results to be highlighted?"

Anything out there that gets close? I'm not in vim often enough that I need the be-all end-all vim rig, but I'd like to twiddle a few things.

Wanting some clicky-draggy thing for a .vimrc, i.e., for using vim. Now that's an interesting twist. Honestly, I would have thought anyone happy with the control of vim would be happy just using vim to edit the .vimrc.
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Christopher CreutzigJul 7 '10 at 17:27

1

The reason someone would want an application like this would be to see and understand all of the options available to them, why they would want to have them, and how to composite them together in a valid way. Me, personally, I browse the VIM help in-app, and use VIM itself to edit .vimrc files. Yeah, it's kind of masochistic, but so is VIM in general :)
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Merlyn Morgan-GrahamJul 7 '10 at 17:42

Well, we(?) do belong to the cult of Vi...
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Wayne WernerJul 7 '10 at 20:35

Unfortunately, the closest you can get is go to the edit menu, and select "Options Window". From there you can see what is available in categories, but unfortunately, you are still going to have to add this stuff to your vimrc by hand.

The thing with vim is an insane learning curve before you start reaping any real benefits. If that isn't really your cup of tea, I would suggest using another editor. Personally, I didn't start really tackling it until it became the primary tool that I use all day. At that point, the learning curve is worth it, where earlier it really wasn't, and I used nano for command line editing, and gedit for gui editing.

I actually like your idea of a webapp vimrc generator (I may actually do it myself after I wrap up my current side project), but to my knowledge, there isn't any existing ones.

The really funny thing is I hate pretty much all anime EXCEPT for cowboy bebop :)

The best I can suggest is steal a .vimrc from a friend, and ask what each line does. Your friend will have to go through all the docs again (a useful exercise anyway) because your friend's .vimrc was cobbled together over the last ten years and copied through who knows how many new machines and installs. Certainly some of it won't be useful, but the rest represents deeply-ingrained finger-knowledge that your friend has spent a significant chunk of his or her life learning. And couldn't unlearn if he or she had to.

In the end you'll have a reasonable starting point that you can easily grow into something that will suit you well.